FIRST ON 3: Car chase leads to crash, suspects still sought

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- A car chase involving a suspected drug dealer led to a traffic crash on a busy Wilmington highway.

New Hanover County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Jerry Brewer says it all started with a Vice/Narcotics Unit operation near the New Hanover-Pender County line and headed down Market Street and on to MLK Parkway. Brewer says officers in marked cars from multiple agencies had the intersection of MLK at N. Kerr Ave. blocked when a driver unrelated to the chase failed to stop for the blue lights and sirens and hit a New Hanover County Sheriff's deputy's car.

There's no word on any injuries, but part of MLK was blocked for a time as crews cleared the scene.

Brewer says the car being chased somehow managed to get over a fence and land in the backyard of a home on Barclay Hills Drive. Investigators are looking for two black males. Brewer says one has dreadlocks and was wearing khaki pants and a white shirt. The other was wearing a jersey with the number 36 on it.

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Again local LEO proving how unprofessional they really are. Something has got to give around here.... All jobs are stressful and have there ups and downs. If its too bad then get a new job. Officers should know before they take the job that dealing with criminals can be tough. Their job is to serve and protect not be arrogant selfless assholes like they are.. Now back to this Chase.. In what world is it justified to risk the lifes of hundreds of civilians on market street to capture a drug dealer?? The offices are to blame for this wreck not the people they were chasing...You are doing 100mph in the rain no wonder you wrecked! I hope these officers take responsibility for this wreck...This was senseless and I am outraged by the actions of the LEO that put public lifes at risk...

"officers in marked cars from multiple agencies had the intersection of MLK at N. Kerr Ave. blocked when a driver unrelated to the chase failed to stop for the blue lights and sirens and hit a New Hanover County Sheriff's deputy's car."

The chase was going okay until someone failed to heed the blue lights. This is not the fault of the officers involved.

As a retired Major from Florida Highway Patrol I can tell you this chase shouldn't have taken place in the conditions and traffic at the time it took place. I sure hope the SOP for the sheriffs office doesn't allow this unless a violent crime took place. If you have a helicopter but conditions are too bad to fly. That means you also can't chase on the ground.

I know that for a fact. The county insurance provider will not cover a chase in conditions that ground aircraft. And I sure hope you guys didn't charge the civilian in that wreck. If so the charge will be thrown out due to unsafe conditions for pursuit continuum. I also witnessed the chase and myself and a current NCHP Trooper were riding together. And almost got into a wreck with these deputies on Market yesterday. We thought it had to be a violent crime. But to hear what it was.. I can't believe you deputies are able to get by with some of the things you do!
I sure hope this never happens again! If it does the public needs to fix it if the county won't.

I, also, saw this unfold. The bad part was that all 6-8 cars were UNMARKED and FLYING down Market Street. They all went straight down the middle turning lane and seemed to be in 2's. I understand the job that the law enforcement has and when we saw all of the commotion, we thought there had been A) another "Houston Moore" type shootout or B) an armed robbery. It was totally unnecessary for that many unmarked cars to have been driving the way they were for that amount of time in those conditions. MANY people were put at risk yesterday for 2 morons and then they STILL got away...are you serious? The county REALLY needs to do a little internal investigation and find out what is REALLY going on here. That was a totally uncalled for display yesterday and those officers should not have gone to those extremes to chase 2 little punks.

You know, this is the fault of the city council and the county commissioners. It's been said over and over, the pay is crap so the experience is leaving. We now have how many new officers/deputies racing down our streets like fools in the rain???

The experienced guys and gals would have probably called this one off, if it had gone to this. As a community we're screwed. This is what we have to look forward to??

Next will be a knee jerk reaction - no chase, stay in your vehicle, call a supervisor for instructions. Sad. We're I. A world of hurt. We're getting what we paid for.

Pay is crap everywhere. Good officers are leaving because it doesn't pay to be a good officer in southeast North Carolina. Unless you kiss ass to the higher ups and join the ranks of corruption around here you get no respect from the people in charge. Officers are leaving because the Sheriff and captain have let Wilmington get way out of hand. Being a cop is a hard job as well as being a nurse or a road worker, or even running and operating a small local business is stressful. Time for these officers to start serving the community instead of "trying" (and failing) to protect us from criminals.

Idiot deputies guess because they don't immediately respond to crimes in the black community I have witnessed shooting and break ins and there was not an immediate response so all squads need a check!!!Any civilian or anyone could have been injured this could have been more chaotic!!!!

Completely RECKLESS! I saw the whole thing in Ogden, they were out of control.
1. Heavy Rain
2. Going down the turning lane on Market St. in heavy traffic
3. 80-100mph Weaving
Just call the chase off!!

Seriously? Pender co line, all the way down Market st to Barkley Hills, and STILL lost the mutt? FAIL.

Upside is that the general public probably wasn't in any danger, not like a 3000lb missile (or 10 of them counting cop cars) wasn't cruising nearly out of control down one of the busiest streets in town. Not like it could'of hit my family or killed some innocent driver. Just sayin.

QUIT PLAYING NICE AND TAKE THEM OUT. IF YOUR GOING TO CHASE THEM-NAIL THEM. DON'T GIVE US HALF AN EFFORT.

Stupid,stupid stupid! I witnessed the chase on Market Street while sitting in my car at Marsh Oaks traffic light. Five ummarked vehicles, sirens blaring, lights flashing, was raining, high speed, lane changing, heavy traffic etc,. Vehicles were trying to get out of the way, didn't know where to go. Idiots running from the deputies, idiot deputies on adenalin rush and ego trip chasing the fools! Formula for disaster? Guess what happened on Martin Luther Parkway and Kerr Avenue! Bingo!

Flag 1: chase started with a drug deal originated in pender county with new hanover sheriff office standing by in new hanover county for backup. Flag 2: by the time new hanover county sheriff's office saw pender county cars speeding down 17 past porters neck it was too late for new hanover county to catch up. So the cow boys from pender county chased the vehicle down busy street 17, through traffic with reckless endangerment and disregard to the public and to the consequences if someone would have gotten hurt or killed. Common sense dictates get the tag and cancel the chase. Any supervisor with common sense would have called off that chase the second pender county sheriffs office entered into new hanover county. All this for two thugs trying to sell dope in pender county and got away with a few dollars. I can see chasing if for a murder, bank robbery or imminent danger to the public. No chase policies should be implemented. Flag: 4 wrecked civilian cars and one new hanover sheriff car wrecked. Doesn't make sense.

WOW, You really are an idiot! Cowboys hah? can't believe that people like you are aloud to talk about what they don't know. At least the cowboys have the b@lls to risk their lives in the chase. They too could have been killed. Just shot up and go to your safe job tomorrow.

Flag 1: chase started with a drug deal originated in pender county with new hanover sheriff office standing by in new hanover county for backup. Flag 2: by the time new hanover county sheriff's office saw pender county cars speeding down 17 past porters neck it was too late for new hanover county to catch up. So the cow boys from pender county chased the vehicle down busy street 17, through traffic with reckless endangerment and disregard to the public and to the consequences if someone would have gotten hurt or killed. Common sense dictates get the tag and cancel the chase. Any supervisor with common sense would have called off that chase the second pender county sheriffs office entered into new hanover county. All this for two thugs trying to sell dope in pender county and got away with a few dollars. I can see chasing if for a murder, bank robbery or imminent danger to the public. No chase policies should be implemented. Flag: 4 wrecked civilian cars and one new hanover sheriff car wrecked. Doesn't make sense.

Not only that, it was a vehicle not involved in the chase that ran into stationary police cars at an intersection. This was not caused by officers involved in the chase. It wasn't even caused by the criminals involved in the chase. It was caused by an idiot who did not stop for the police cars that were sitting at the intersection.

Idiot Deputy!!! REALLY????? Who is the first one you call when your house is broken into or someone has just robbed you or one of your family members. We as law enforcement officers never like to chase anyone but we have to sometimes depending on the circumstances. And until you strap on a gun and badge and do what we do, Please don't judge us. When we leave our house to go to work, we don't know if we will come back home. We do this so that you can lie in your bed and sleep at night while we are out risking our lives to keep you safe. Just saying!

Do you mean by a accident or a heart attack, Cops can be victims of those too. Just by wearing an uniform, and a badge certain people are out to get you. And to be honest, based on some of the comments here, I think we are surrounded by a bunch of anti law enforcement.

COPS BE WARE OF THE IDIOTS MAKING COMMENTS HERE" Please keep your eyes open at all times. It seems that we have more enemies.

I admit I have done some idiotic things in my life. Was I an idiot in those instances -of course! I have great respect for law enforcement and officers, but the end did not justify the means in this case. It scared the heck out out me and a bunch of other folks!

The only reason I would call 911 is to clean up the dead guy that tried to harm me or my family. Then I would have to defend myself against LEO to justify why I did it. Luckily my family wasn't out on the road as you came through Porter's Neck or they would be cleaning you up also.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN. BULL!!! LOL. You are watching too much TV. Please stop that, its really bad for you. Oh, but don't worry, while you are a sleep dreaming how you think you can take care of your own, the cops are out there exposed to who knows what protecting your DUMB A$$. Thanks for nothing!

While you might not know it from the knee-jerk responses you see on anything relating to law enforcement on this site there *ARE* people that still respect the badge, the position and your service to the public. Thank you!

i live in Barclay hills and what i witness was horrible, i was just getting home with my two nieces AND they were dropping me home they were almost run over in there car; i thought there was a law were police could not car through a neighborhood doing about a 100 miles an hour. were the police jacked up on steroids or what. something should be done about these high speed chases before somebodies child gets killed.